One half of the iconic songwriting duo HALL & OATES and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Daryl Hall, recently confirmed to a New York radio station that he was asked to join VAN HALEN after David Lee Roth had quit the group back in 1985.
Hall discussed the subject of being approached by VAN HALEN in a new interview with “Out Of The Box With Jonathan Clarke” on New York’s Q104.3.
When asked if there was any truth to Eddie Van Halen approaching him to join the group as the band’s new frontman after Roth left, Daryl said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Well, yeah. Actually, yes. I knew those guys [VAN HALEN] really well; we actually shared some people — crew and things like that. And Eddie came to a show with [his then-wife] Valerie [Bertinelli] — this goes back, you know — and David had just left the band. And Eddie said, ‘Do you wanna join VAN HALEN, man?’ He was half joking, but I think he was serious — I really do believe he was serious. And I took it seriously. I went, ‘Meh, I think not. I think I’ve got my own shit going on.'”
Daryl also went on to confirm that the keyboard hook in the classic VAN HALEN song “Jump” was inspired by the HALL & OATES’s classic “Kiss Is On My List”.
Hall said: “That is correct. That’s what [Eddie] always told me. He said that inspired ‘Jump’.”
You can listen to the full interview at this location.